The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-15
FREAKS OF THE INSANE.
The Queer Fancies of People Who Are
Crazy.
From the Baltimore Herald.

Wudu poytitolDSlSesA power IlSttut pcIsOuS
are enabled to believe themselves potentates
or criminals or the victims of the passions
of others is mystery; and the manifold de-
lusions to which such persons are subject
no two cases being alike-onlv increase
what no mystagogue or Psychologist has as
yet fully explained.
Every reader will recall the case de-
scribed by Dickens in David Copperfeld"
of poor Mr. Dick and the trouble he en-
countered in writing his memorial of Charles
l., and that other case, described by Eggles-
ton in 1.-THE Hoosier Schoolmaster," of the
lunatic Andrew jackson, whose head was
one-half sound and the other half ''tatern
Such Illustrations of the freaks of in
sanity are to be met with in real life every
day.
For some time past reporter has been
collecting information concerning the
freaks of the insane patients confined at
Bayview, Mount Hope and Spring Grove
Asylums; and he has also been the recipient
of large correspondence from the keepers
of almhouses throughout the, State, wherein
pauper lunatics, subject to the milder and
less violent forms of insanity, are cared
| for From hundreds of cases investigated
| the following are selected. For obvious
reasons they are given without being at
| tributed TO the particular institutions where
| the victims are confined:
| An unfortunate, spoken of by an aims
house keeper of one of the Western Mary
land counties, imagines that he has been
elected President of the United States and
| that he is restrained from assuming the
| functions of his office by his twin brother,
| who is epdeavoring to pass himself off as the
the one chosen by the electors. The patient
is greatly pleased when he is addressed as
''Mr. President or "Your Excellency,n
| and instantly becomes violent when his
| 60 La Il rid IaH
| Another similar case to the above is that
| of patient who believes that he is the COM
mander or a vast army. One day he eS-
capped from his cell, and when found was
standing upon high hill few miles from
| the asylum, whence a view of large tract
| of the surrounding country could be had.
| His right hand grasped stick, which he
| welded above his head like a sword and
shouted
Form foursl Draw sabris! Charge
He imagined that he was ordering a
charge of cavalry Upon being told that
his troops had achieved great victory he
suffered himself to be carried back to the
asylum without making resistance
A familiar figure upon the streets of Balti
more is an aged man with a quick, erect,
military step, and wearing a &c. A. r."
cap and blue army coat. He fancies that
the civil war is still raging, and that he is
| home on furlough, which is extended from
time to time His mental delusion is the re-
| suit of a wound in the head received in the
rife-pits before Richmond.
| At an asylum near the city is confined a
patient who thinks he is a distinguished
| military officer and requires every person
coming near him to make military salute.
| A numerous class of hlnatics are those
who imagine themselves in communication
with spirits. The minds of these have gen
orally become diseased by religious enthu
siasm and influences. One of this class
firmly believes that everything he is request
ed to do is in direct opposition to the tenets
| of the Episcopal church. When told to eat
or to dress himself he refuses to obey.
Another holds imaginary conversation
with unseen spirits, which continually hover
| around him and give him an account of
events in tbs spiritual world.
| Mrs. R is perfectly sane on all sub
| jects, save that of spiritualism. She be-
lieves there is a spiritual city in the centre
of the earth and that when person dies his
soul is conveyed below, where everything is
the same as it is on earth. She Is in the
asylum under oath, waiting for her father,
the angel Michael, to call her back to her
| former home, which she left $4,000 years
ago, to relate her impressions of the asylum.
Her mother is Queen Victoria.
| NJ W always fancies in the
morning that he was the first man who
|
| years old, and has the same number of years
| yet to live; that the entire population of the
| globe are his lineal descendants. In the even
| ing he believes himself to be the Saviour,
and says that he was crucifed three times.
T B thinks he is King Solo
mon. If not watched he eats and swallows
his Clothes saying that after being received
intShis stomach they are fashioned into APP
parel for his hundreds of wives
| A 6aYnpOtad iprD1fa of n county alToShOuSa
has not spoken for years. He is, during
| his waking hours, waging continual war
| fare with imaginary beings who attack him.
In the Dorchester county pauperhouse is
| lunatic who fances that he IS the smartest
man alive, all others being fools. For hours
| he will speak upon some scientific subject,
| and, if his hearers manifest any impotence,
will scOld and abuse them.
| In the same institution is a crazy phren-
| ologist, who delivers lectures upon his IA
vorite science and insists upon giving every
| person whom he sees chronological exami-
| nation. His favorite organ" for lecturing
upon is veneration, and if his subject have
| it well developed he will talk to him for
| hours However, he viii have nothing to
do with a person whose developments fail to
suit him. He has written several thousand
pages of work on phrenology which he ex-
| poets shortly to have published.
A female patient is a county almshouse is
| possessed of the delusion that she spent ten
| years in heaven and was sent on earth as a
| missionary.
| A man in the same almshouse believes
| that because OF his sins, which are many,
he was killed by a thunderbolt from heaven;
| that he was raised from the dead, and put
| in confinement to repent.
Another inmate, female, is the owner of
| Maryland and the wife of President Lin
coin She often leaves food for the Union
| gods" and because they do not get it is
| greatly distressed and fears they have been
| destroyed.
One of the patients met with at one of the
| city institutions Is believer of witcbcraft.
| The witches annoy her in every conceivable
manner, but she gets rid of them by tramp
ing on them. She also fancies that attempts
are made to poison her, and that the resi-
dent physician visits her room ut midnight
and slabs her.
Another patient thinks the asylum is q
large boarding-house for celestial spirits and
that she has the authority to discharge all
the servants and attendants; also that a
great many people are drowned in a deep
| well near tho building and that she has pre-
viously met every stranger who calls
Many female lunatics were met with
whose Affections appeared to be connected
with an unfortunate marriage or love affair,
and the reporter was told that this class
comprised the larger portion Of the female
DatipntS